![]() ![]() The Rebbe responded with a relevant lesson: Some 50 years ago, a young student was about to embark on a long, multi-stop journey and he asked the Rebbe for a blessing. “Every moment in life has a Divine call, and every place has a holy purpose.” And when our hands reach out to hold the hands of our heavenly co-captain, we may just discover that He is continuously helping us navigate our lives in the best of directions, even when, from time to time, we may lose control.ĥ. When our eyes gaze upward, our hearts are filled with faith and reassurance. For, the Rebbe knew that when we connected Above, we won’t fall down. The Rebbe pleaded with us to look heavenward, to partner with G-d, and make Him and His eternal values an integral part of our lives. Throughout the Rebbe’s leadership, this idea was a common theme. So she asked him, “How did you manage to climb to the peak of that tree so quickly?” The young Rebbe-to-be responded poignantly: “My friends looked down, so they became afraid of falling, but I looked up so I was never afraid!” They were each trying to climb a tree to its highest peak.Īll the other children tried to climb high to no avail, but her son had succeeded in just a few minutes. ![]() When the Rebbe was just three years old, his mother found him playing a game with his friends. “If you are connected Above, you won’t fall down!” We can be externally different, but as the Rebbe taught, internally, we are “one people, on one side.”Ĥ. Let us recall that, intrinsically, we are all united by the image of God with which every human being was created. Nowadays, when social tensions are high and humanity is split into so-called “sides”, the Rebbe’s words ring loudly. The Rebbe’s response was stirring: “Not two people and two sides, but one people on one side.” Shortly after the infamous “crown-heights riots” of 1990, the then-mayor of New York, David Dinkins, visited the late Lubavitcher Rebbe to ask for a blessing for peace “between the two groups - the Jews and the blacks - in their neighborhood.” Perhaps, this is why the Rebbe so often repeated the words of our Jewish sages that “the deed is what counts most.” For, at the end of the day, we may experience all sorts of moods, but a smile, a helping hand, a generous act can mold us and our lives infinitely more than the emotions of our hearts. If you take your mind off of it completely - within a short time you will be healed.” In order to make this easier, you should keep busy with something completely different, no matter what it is. The more you take your mind off of it - the better it will become, and the medical avenues you are trying will be more successful. Similarly, the Rebbe once wrote to a man who was complaining about his inability to shake off his melancholy that, “it seems that the principal cause of your situation is that you ruminate about your situation constantly. Meanwhile, do volunteer work - preferably in a hospital with children – and you will find your patience growing.” G-d will bless you with many children and these children will teach you patience. ![]() She had a “bad temper” and she was afraid that this would ruin her marriage.Īfter listening to her attentively, the Rebbe responded: “Don’t call off your wedding. Instead, focus on actions of kindness.”Ī woman once sought the advice of the Rebbe, about canceling her wedding. “Sometimes, the best way to deal with your negative emotions is not to deal with them at all. Ah, if only, we too could see our children, and all people, even during their lowest hours, as giants of mankind.Ģ. He did not see human beings and what they seem to be he saw spiritual beings and what they could and should become. This was the Rebbe’s view of every person. ![]() And his terrible habit stopped immediately. Rather, he began seeing himself as a boy with a great soul, whose current behaviors were unbecoming to the “great rabbi” he was going to become. When he shared his behavior with the saintly Rebbe, the Rebbe said to him: “One day, you will become a great Rabbi, so allow me to ask you: Is this behavior befitting to a great Rabbi?” At that moment, he ceased seeing himself as a boy with a behavioral problem. Whenever he was presented with food, he would eat uncontrollably. When his teacher was a young boy, he had a terrible habit. The story he chose to tell was about a moving interaction between his teacher and the Rebbe. “Share with me a story from your High-school Yeshiva,” I asked my eldest son the other day. And so, here is a humble attempt to provide a glimpse into seven of the Rebbe’s saintly teachings that changed our world:ġ. ![]()
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